Service transmitting method of mobile multi-media broadcasting network

ABSTRACT

A service transmitting method of mobile multimedia broadcasting network is disclosed. The sending side of the system adds an updating indication of multiplexing configuration information in the service information slice for indicating whether the information of a next frame is updated, sends information to the receiving terminal, and sends an updating indication of information to the terminal in advance; the terminal acquires the service needed according to the information received at the beginning and monitors whether the information is going to change by monitoring the updating indication, the terminal stops monitoring and records the updating indication in case monitors an updating indication; for receiving other services, the terminal inquires whether any updating notice is recorded, if recorded, the terminal re-acquires the current information, according to which the service needed is acquired and at the same time removes the original updating indication and re-starts to monitor the updating indication of information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a U.S. National Stage Application under 35U.S.C. 371 of PCT/CN2006/003668, filed on Dec. 29, 2006, which claimspriority to Chinese Patent Application 200610152341.6, filed on Sep. 26,2006.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to digital mobile communication field,specifically relates to a service transmitting method of mobilemultimedia broadcasting network.

2. Description of Related Art

In recent years, technologies and standards of digital mobile multimediabroadcasting have developed rapidly, such as DVB-H (Digital VideoBroadcast Handheld) of Europe, Media FLO (Media Forward Link Only) ofthe USA, CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcast) of China and so on.

Compared with analog technologies, one of the advantages of the digitalmobile multimedia broadcasting network is that a broadcasting channelcan support transmissions of a plurality of services by multiplexing onthe premise of satisfying the requirements on service qualities so thatthe utilization efficiency of radio resource can be greatly increased.We call the data obtained by multiplexing of a plurality of serviceswithin a certain time a broadcast frame. For the receiving terminal, asthere are a plurality of services on a broadcast frame, the terminalneeds information which we call multiplexing configuration informationand can exactly describe the broadcast channel resource each serviceused in the present broadcast frame to receive one or more servicesneeded rapidly and exactly. Multiplexing configuration information isgenerated by the sending terminal when multiplexing occurs and is sentto the terminal in one same broadcast frame.

In consideration of reducing the receiving power consumption of a mobilemultimedia receiving terminal, all mobile multimedia broadcastingtechnologies have adopted various methods to reduce the working time ofthe receiving terminal. In addition to service data compression, anothertwo methods are also widely used:

Time slicing technology, in which a broadcast frame is further dividedinto a plurality of time slices and one time slice only bears oneservice, thus the receiving terminal only needs to receive the timeslice needed and needless to receive the whole broadcast frame, if onlyneeding to receive one service.

Multiplexing configuration information and service data use differenttime slices, so as to reduce the number of spending information inservice data or in other words to increase the proportion of servicespayload data on time slices, so that lengths of time slices can befurther reduced, which leads to reducing of the working time of thereceiving terminal.

There are many design methods for broadcast frames used by variousmobile multimedia broadcasting technologies, but basic constitutions ofbroadcast frames are similar.

We call the time slice in which multiplexing configuration informationis located multiplexing information time slice and the time slice inwhich a service is located service time slice. In this manner, thereceiving terminal can receive the service needed normally only byacquiring the multiplexing information time slice and the service timeslice needed in each frame. If the times of reading spending time slicesby the receiving terminal can be reduced, the working time of thereceiving terminal can also be further reduced so that the design ofmobile multimedia broadcasting system can have a better feature ofcurrent saving. Various mobile multimedia broadcasting technologies havedesigns for this point. Below are two common methods:

Method A: adding interval time indication information in the servicetime slice, the information used to indicate the time when the nextservice time slice of the present service appears. This technology hasbeen applied in DVB-H system. The problem of this method is that when abroadcast frame bears services having variable rate, each interval timemay be varied and the receiving terminal needs to acquire interval timeindication information from each service time slice no matter whetherdata rate of the service currently received by the receiving terminal isvariable or not.

Method B: auxiliary multiplexing information with a fixed length isadded in the service time slice, for a broadcast frame has a fixed timelength (such as 1 sec.). Whether multiplexing configuration informationof the present service will be changed in the next frame andcorresponding multiplexing configuration information or filling areprovided in the auxiliary multiplexing information, according to whichthe receiving terminal can receive the service needed. Only when needingto receive other services, the receiving terminal needs to receive themultiplexing information time slice. However, this method also has aproblem of increasing the processing complexity of the receivingterminal.

For a mobile multimedia broadcasting network, the services most commonlyused by users are the real-time services which are continuouslybroadcasted such as television and audio broadcast. The feature of thiskind of service in the broadcasting process is that the average datarate can be considered to be fixed and as long as the coverage area orservice quality is not adjusted by broadcast operator, the broadcastchannel resource (the size of time slice) needed by this kind of servicecan also be fixed.

If this kind of service application is prevailing, the existing methodsnot only increase additional spending but the procedure of receivingprocessing of the receiving terminal is also relatively complex.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a service transmittingmethod of mobile multimedia broadcasting network to reduce the workingtime of the receiving module in the mobile multimedia broadcastingsystem receiving terminal and to better save current.

The technical solution of the present invention is as follows:

A service transmitting method of mobile multimedia broadcasting network,characterized in, comprising the following steps:

(1) a sending side of a mobile multimedia broadcasting system generatesa broadcast frame in a fixed time period, implements multiplexing todifferent services according to service types and generates multiplexingconfiguration information, wherein a corresponding updating indicationof the multiplexing configuration information is added in each serviceinformation slice as auxiliary spending information for indicatingwhether multiplexing configuration information of a next frame isupdated;

(2) the sending side of the mobile multimedia broadcasting systemfirstly sends multiplexing configuration information to a receivingterminal at the beginning of a frame and sends the updating indicationof the multiplexing configuration information to the receiving terminalin advance when the multiplexing configuration information needs to bechanged;

(3) when using services of the mobile multimedia broadcasting system,the receiving terminal firstly receives a multiplexing configurationinformation, then acquires the service needed according to the receivedmultiplexing configuration information, and monitors whether themultiplexing configuration information is going to change by monitoringthe updating indication; the receiving terminal stops monitoring andrecords the update situations once monitors a decided updatingindication;

(4) when other services in addition to the current service needs to bereceived, the receiving terminal inquires whether situations ofmultiplexing configuration information update are recorded; if yes, thereceiving terminal re-acquires multiplexing configuration informationaccording to which the service needed is acquired, removes the recordedupdate situations and re-starts to monitor the updating indication ofmultiplexing configuration information.

In the above step (1), the mobile multimedia broadcasting system furtherinforms the receiving terminal of the service type of each service bysending a service type notice.

The service types comprise fixed rate services and variable rateservices. The service type notice is achieved by adding service typeinformation in multiplexing configuration information. The service typescomprise fixed rate services and variable rate services.

The updating indication comprises a fixed rate service configurationupdating indication and a variable rate service configuration updatingindication.

In the step (2), the sending side of the mobile multimedia broadcastingsystem sends an updating indication of multiplexing configurationinformation to the receiving terminal in advance of one frame when themultiplexing configuration information needs to be changed.

In the step (3), it is further comprised that the receiving terminalcaches the original multiplexing configuration information.

In the step (4), when other service in addition to the current serviceneeds to be received, the receiving terminal acquires the service neededby using the saved multiplexing configuration information if there is noupdating indication.

The present invention provides a method in the mobile multimediabroadcasting network that can not only reduce the times that thereceiving terminal acquires multiplexing configuration information butcan also reduce the number of auxiliary spending information using theauxiliary spending information and the properties of the service neededby the receiving terminal, so that the working time of the receivingmodule in the receiving terminal of the mobile multimedia broadcastingsystem receiving terminal is reduced, which renders that current can bebetter saved, the processing complexity of the receiving terminal can bereduced and less auxiliary multiplexing information is used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the constitution of the mobilemultimedia broadcasting system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the structure of multiplexingframe in the mobile multimedia broadcasting system.

FIG. 3 is diagram schematically showing the process of informing servicetypes.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of sending the updated multiplexing configurationinformation and updating indication bit.

FIG. 5 is a process procedure of updating multiplexing configurationinformation and updating indication bit when the terminal uses a fixedrate service.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be described in details in combination withthe figures. If not conflict, the embodiments and the details of theembodiments below can be combined.

As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile multimedia broadcasting network system ismainly composed by a mobile multimedia broadcasting transmitting systemand a mobile multimedia broadcasting receiving system (terminal), theinterface between the two is the wireless air interface. The mobilemultimedia broadcasting service is sent from the transmitting system tothe mobile multimedia broadcasting receiving system via the airinterface in form of electromagnetic signal.

The mobile multimedia broadcasting network system provides the receivingterminal with multiplexed signals. The structure of a broadcast frame isshown as FIG. 2, wherein in a broadcast frame a multiplexing informationtime slice is located in front of each service time slice. In thesending side of the mobile multimedia broadcasting system, thegenerating time of a broadcast frame is generally fixed or in otherwords the time period of a broadcast frame is fixed, for example, abroadcast frame is generated every 1 second.

In the sending side of the mobile multimedia broadcasting system,services are classified into fixed rate services and variable rateservices and service type information is sent to inform the receivingterminal of the service type of each service. There can be many sendingmethods such as adding service type information in multiplexingconfiguration information for each service.

In the mobile multimedia broadcasting network system, the service typedescription of each service is sent from the mobile multimediabroadcasting transmitting system to the receiving terminal, which isshown as the informing flow in FIG. 3.

In the process of multiplexing, multiplexing processing is implementedto the fixed rate services and variable rate services respectively. Forthe fixed rate services, it only needs to add an updating indication ofmultiplexing configuration information in the corresponding service timeslice for indicating whether multiplexing configuration information isupdated. For the variable rate service, the multiplexing configurationinformation in a next frame of the service can be provided in additionto the updating indication.

As shown in FIG. 4, the updated multiplexing configuration informationand updating indication provided to the receiving terminal by the mobilemultimedia broadcasting network system are sent from the mobilemultimedia broadcasting transmitting system to the receiving terminal,whose flow is shown as follows:

Flow a: the mobile multimedia broadcasting transmitting system sends theoriginal multiplexing configuration information A;

Flow b: the mobile multimedia broadcasting transmitting system sends“updating indication bit” to the receiving terminal in advance of oneframe;

Flow c: the mobile multimedia broadcasting system sends the updatedmultiplexing configuration information B to the terminals within itsservice area in the multiplexing information time slice.

FIG. 5 schematically shows the updated multiplexing configurationinformation and updating indication process procedure of the receivingterminal in the receiving process of the fixed rate services. Afterpowering on, the mobile multimedia broadcasting receiving terminal needsto receive multiplexing configuration information to acquire a certainservice needed. In the process of receiving mobile multimediabroadcasting services with a fixed rate, when processing service timeslices of each frame, the receiving terminal needs to processconfiguration updating indication until the first update appears. Thenthe receiving terminal sends an updating indication (which indicatesthat configuration information is changed and updating is needed) andsince then it will not process the updating indication in service timeslices any more. When wishing to turn to receive other services, thereceiving terminal only needs to make use of the saved multiplexingconfiguration information A and does not need to receive multiplexingconfiguration information again, if it has cached the originalmultiplexing configuration information A and there is no updatingindication; the receiving terminal needs to receive the multiplexingconfiguration information B over again, if it has not cached theoriginal multiplexing configuration information or it receives anupdating indication.

It can be seen from the above embodiments, compared with the prior art,the present invention can reduce the times of acquiring multiplexingconfiguration information by the terminal and can also reduce the numberof auxiliary spending information and the processing complexity of thereceiving terminal.

The descriptions above are only preferable embodiments of the presentinvention, which are not used to restrict the present invention. Forthose skilled in the art, the present invention may have various changesand variations. Any amendments, equivalent substitutions, improvementsetc. within the spirit and principle of the present invention are allconcluded in the scope of protection of the present invention.

1. A service transmitting method of mobile multimedia broadcastingnetwork, comprising the following steps: (1) a sending side of a mobilemultimedia broadcasting system generates a broadcast frame in a fixedtime period, implements multiplexing to different services according toservice types and generates multiplexing configuration information,wherein a corresponding updating indication of the multiplexingconfiguration information is added in each service information slice asauxiliary overhead information for indicating whether multiplexingconfiguration information of a next frame is updated; (2) the sendingside of the mobile multimedia broadcasting system firstly sendsmultiplexing configuration information to a receiving terminal at thebeginning of a frame and sends the updating indication of themultiplexing configuration information to the receiving terminal inadvance when the multiplexing configuration information needs to bechanged; (3) when using services of the mobile multimedia broadcastingsystem, the receiving terminal firstly receives a multiplexingconfiguration information, then acquires the service needed according tothe received multiplexing configuration information, and monitorswhether the multiplexing configuration information is going to change bymonitoring the updating indication; the receiving terminal stopsmonitoring and records the update situations once a decided updatingindication is monitored; (4) when other services in addition to thecurrent service needs to be received, the receiving terminal inquireswhether situations of multiplexing configuration information update arerecorded; if yes, the receiving terminal re-acquires multiplexingconfiguration information according to which the service needed isacquired, removes the recorded update situations and re-starts tomonitor the updating indication of multiplexing configurationinformation.
 2. According to the method in claim 1, wherein in the step(1), the mobile multimedia broadcasting system further informs thereceiving terminal of the service type of each service by sending aservice type notice.
 3. According to the method in claim 2, wherein theservice type notice is achieved by adding service type information inmultiplexing configuration information.
 4. According to the method inclaim 1, wherein the service types comprise fixed rate services andvariable rate services.
 5. According to the method in claim 4, whereinthe updating indication comprises a fixed rate service configurationupdating indication and a variable rate service configuration updatingindication.
 6. According to the method in claim 1, wherein in the step(2), the sending side of the mobile multimedia broadcasting system sendsan updating indication of multiplexing configuration information to thereceiving terminal in advance of one frame when the multiplexingconfiguration information needs to be changed.
 7. According to themethod in claim 1, wherein in the step (3), it is further comprised thatthe receiving terminal caches the original multiplexing configurationinformation.
 8. According to the method in claim 7, wherein in the step(4), when other service in addition to the current service needs to bereceived, the receiving terminal acquires the service needed by usingthe saved multiplexing configuration information if there is no updatingindication.